Ceramic products are made from one or more types of clay, alumina or silica. It is a property of powders of such materials that they become plastic and moldable when wetted by water, so that they can easily be made into intricate shapes. In the manufacture of ceramic products, the green ware must be handled while it is in the generally plastic state and before it is dried so that in most instances handleability of the product dictates the minimum thickness from which the article can be made. The molded bodies, commonly called green ware are slowly dried in ovens. Thereafter, they may or may not be coated with a glassy frit and are then fired in kilns to a temperature that fuses the constituents into a hard product. A further condition which affects the minimum thickness from which the ceramic bodies can be made, occurs by reason of slump, sag, or ware distortion during the firing cycle. Slump may occur as phase changes occur within the bodies during the firing cycle.
One object of the invention is to speed up the dewatering of slip cast material on the mold and thereby achieve a faster mold turn-a-round and thus greater production.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a new and improved method of extracting water from ceramic green ware to shorten the drying time required.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates from the following description of several preferred embodiments which are described with reference to the accompanying drawings.